| Anyone who has used the Internet
knows that it can be very difficult to find useful information. Using
a search engine often results in thousands of useless hits, many of
them repetitious or dead links. Other links are to websites that have
nothing to do with the subject that the user is trying to find information
on. Here are a few tips on where to get started.
One of the best places to start looking for good information on the
Internet is a directory such as The World
Wide Web Virtual Library. The WWWVL is a web catalog that organizes
links by subjects, such as agriculture, computer science, etc. These
categories are divided into subcategories; for example, the category "computer
science" has subcategories such as artificial intelligence, audio,
computer graphics, and so on.
Some directories annotate selected links. A good example of this practice
is seen on the Academic Info site.
This directory to educational resources provides helpful indexes for
each subject and annotates each selected website.
Another place to look is the Librarian's
Index to the Internet. This index has a search engine that allows
searching by subjects, titles, or descriptions from the annotations.
The Index also has a huge Subject List that can
be browsed. You may also want to take a look at the Internet
Public Library, which in addition to annotations provides cross-references.
Most commercial search engines now include a Web guide or directory,
and some annotate selected links. Keep in mind that the selection criteria
are not always provided by the site. Most of these "Web portals" also
offer other features as well, such as news, shopping, and entertainment;
often these services are provided by other Internet companies.
Some of the most popular portal sites are listed below; others are
available on the Web.
There are also metasearch engines, which search multiple engines at
once:
If you have absolutely no idea on how to search the Internet, try
the following tutorial:
Finding
Information on the Internet: A Tutorial
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